Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has done a 180, announcing that Facebook will roll back its heavy-handed censorship policies in favor of promoting free speech as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to re-enter the White House. Zuckerberg admitted, “We’ve done too much censorship,” a statement that could be the understatement of the decade. Facebook’s dramatic shift includes scrapping its controversial third-party fact-checking system and adopting a crowd-sourced model similar to Elon Musk’s Community Notes on X.
“We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg announced in a video. As part of this transformation, Meta’s content moderation team will move from leftist California to right-leaning Texas, a decision that seems ripped straight from Musk’s playbook.
Meta’s new direction will also see it lift restrictions on hot-button issues like immigration and gender—topics Zuckerberg acknowledged had been “out of touch with mainstream discourse.” According to Zuckerberg, the company’s former efforts to address misinformation had created more harm than good. “Third-party fact-checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they created,” he admitted.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, a staunch Trump ally, praised Zuckerberg’s decision, calling it “a huge step in the right direction.” Jordan reminded the public that Meta had previously admitted to censoring Americans under pressure from the Biden White House. “Last August, Zuckerberg admitted to our committee that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans,” Jordan said. It’s no coincidence this announcement comes as Trump’s America-first policies are poised to return.
Meta’s about-face is more than a business decision; it’s a tacit admission that the left’s censorship crusade was an abject failure. The platform’s decision to partner with Trump to push back against censorship—both domestically and globally—signals a long-overdue return to the principles of free expression. Zuckerberg didn’t mince words when he criticized “legacy media” for stifling debate, adding, “A lot of this is clearly political.”
This move also aligns with Meta’s plans to court Trump’s inner circle, with notable figures like UFC President Dana White joining the board of directors. Zuckerberg is finally acknowledging what conservatives have been saying for years: heavy-handed censorship alienates users and erodes trust.
While Democrats will undoubtedly decry this shift as dangerous, the truth is that Meta is simply responding to market realities and public demand. For years, Big Tech’s censorship disproportionately targeted conservative voices under the guise of combating “misinformation.” But now, with Trump’s second term on the horizon, even Zuckerberg sees the writing on the wall. Meta’s pivot to free speech isn’t just good business—it’s a win for democracy. The days of leftist tech giants acting as the “arbiters of truth” are coming to an end, and it’s about time.
